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Sweet Home High School Principal Ralph Brown told School Board members, at their monthly meeting Monday, Feb. 14, that the percentage of freshmen on track to graduate worries him “greatly.”

Brown said that the percentage of ninth-graders on track to graduate for the class of 2024 is 68%, the lowest that figure has been in the last eight years and a marked decrease from the class of 2023’s “ninth grade on track” percentage of 84% and the class of 2022’s rate of 88%.

“I am nothing but a realist, and this is the thing that’s got me most worried right now,” Brown said. “”N...